Parmesan Bread Pudding with Broccoli & Ham

A tasty savoury bread pudding that uses up your less than fresh bread and other leftovers!

I have been trying as much as possible lately to throw away as little food as I can. I often have leftover dinner and sad bits of veg in the fridge and rather than rush out to buy more food, I am working at saving money and reducing our waste by creating meals out of forgotten bits of food in the cupboard and fridge.

Saturday lunchtime I was staring at half a leftover ciabatta loaf, a less than fresh head of broccoli and a packet of ham which needed using up, feeling completely uninspired. I searched the internet and foundÂ this recipe on Bon Appetit. It looked delicious and I had never tried a savoury bread pudding before so I decided to adapt it to the ingredients I had.

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I didn’t have enough ciabatta so used a few slices of white bread to bulk it out. I would definitely recommend using mostly crusty bread though, as this will give a lovely crunchy crusty top to the pudding.

I was really pleased with the results. It got a massive thumbs up from my fussy eating family and even my 3 year old scoffed down the broccoli. It’s a miracle!

I will definitely be making this recipe again. The beauty of it is that it can be easily chopped and changed to include whatever leftovers you have. Leftover roast chicken and spinach? Or sausage and mushroom? Or for a vegetarian option maybe try leftover roasted veg?

Parmesan Bread Pudding with Broccoli & Ham

Description

Use up your less than fresh bread and other leftovers with this savoury bread pudding

Ingredients

300g broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

350ml milk

6 eggs

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

400g bread (I used 300g of ciabatta and 100g of sliced white bread)

50g grated parmesan (save a sprinkling for the top)

75g ham slices

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease an oven dish. I used a 24 sq cm dish.

Cook the broccoli in boiling water on the hob for 4 minutes, then drain.

Whisk the milk and eggs together in a bowl and add garlic, oregano, black pepper and chilli .

Tear the bread into bite sized chunks and place in the greased dish. Add the broccoli and pour over the egg mixture. Sprinkle the grated parmesan on top and finally add the ham slices, roughly torn. Push the pieces of ham into the mixture. This ensures that the bottom half of the ham remains soft and the top half is crispy. Finish with the remaining parmesan.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until the mixture is set in the middle and crispy on top.